The ministry of petroleum and natural gas has said that the target of 1.5 crore connections fixed for the current financial year for Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) has been achieved within a span of less than 8 months.

PMUY scheme is being implemented now across 35 States/UTs.

Vision of Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to provide clean cooking fuel to poor households in the country has been taken forward through implementation of Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).

Under the scheme, an adult woman member of BPL family identified through Socio-Economic Caste Census (SECC) data is given a deposit free LPG connection with financial assistance of Rs. 1600/- per connection by Government of India.

The announcement of releasing 5 crore LPG connections to BPL families over a period of three years was made with allocation of Rs 8000 crore in the Union Budget on 29.2.2016.

14 States/UTs having LPG coverage less than the national average, hilly states of J&K, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh and all North-East States are identified as priority states for implementing the scheme.

The top five States with maximum connections are UP (46 lakh), West Bengal (19 lakh), Bihar (19 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (17 lakh) and Rajasthan (14 lakh). These States constitutes nearly 75% of the total connections released. The households belonging to SC/ST constitute large chunk of beneficiaries with 35% of the connections being released to them.

It is also noteworthy that with the implementation of PMUY, the national LPG coverage has increased from 61% (as on 1.1.2016) to 70% (as on 01.12.2016).